Atlas of China
Xining 西宁Xīníng
Gateway to the plateau: a Gelug monastery, a Hui mosque and thick sour yoghurt
About Xining
Xining, Qinghai's capital, lies at about 2,200 metres in the Huangshui valley and is cool enough in summer to be nicknamed China's 'Summer Capital'. Kumbum Monastery, one of the six great Gelug monasteries, stands where the school's founder Tsongkhapa was born, and the Ming-era Dongguan Mosque is the heart of the city's Hui community. The Qinghai Provincial Museum and Qinghai Tibetan Medicine Culture Museum introduce the plateau's painted pottery, Buddhist art and Tibetan medicine.
What to eat in Xining
- Niangpi cold noodles (酿皮)
- Kangguo lamb ribs (炕锅羊排)
- Old-style yoghurt (老酸奶)
Featured places in Xining
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Kumbum Monastery 塔尔寺
Golden roofs and butter sculptures at the birthplace of Tsongkhapa
Listed sites in Xining
19 sites in Xining are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Bianmagou Flower Sea 边麻沟花海 4A scenic area · on the map
A flower garden of about 800 mu (roughly 53 hectares) in Bianmagou village, Shuobei Tibetan township, Datong County, at an average height of about 2,800 m. - Dan'gar Ancient Town 丹噶尔古城 4A scenic area · on the map
The old town of Huangyuan County, called Tongkor in Tibetan, founded in the Hongwu era of the early Ming (1368–98) and made the seat of a Qing sub-prefecture, the Dan'gar Ting, in 1829. - Kunlun Jade Culture Museum 昆仑玉文化博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A museum in the Biological Science and Technology Park in Xining's Chengbei district, in the same museum cluster as the Tibetan Medicine Culture Museum and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Natural Museum. - Laoye Mountain 老爷山 4A scenic area · on the map
A 2,928 m mountain above Qiaotou town, the seat of Datong Hui and Tu Autonomous County north of Xining, taking its name by tradition from a Guandi temple on its slopes, with other small temples along the ascent. - Limeng Pedestrian Street 力盟步行街 4A scenic area · on the map
A modern shopping and dining quarter in central Xining, built in an old-street style of Qin-brick and Han-tile design and laid out as 'two streets, four gates and eight lanes'. - Qinghai Provincial Museum 青海省博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
Qinghai's provincial museum, open to the public since 1986 and housed since 2001 in a large building on West Gate Street in central Xining. - Qinghai Tibetan Culture Hall 青海藏文化馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A privately run museum of Tibetan history and culture in Lusar, Huangzhong District, opened in 2010 and housed in two exhibition halls. - Qinghai Tibetan Medicine Culture Museum 青海藏医药文化博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A national first-grade museum devoted to Tibetan medicine and plateau civilisation, in Xining's Biological Science and Technology Park, with nearly 60,000 objects including fossils, stone tools, pottery, gold and silver, silks, old manuscripts, medical instruments and thangka. - Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Natural Museum 青藏高原自然博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A natural-history museum in Xining's Biological Science and Technology Park, opened in 2011 and a few minutes' walk from the Tibetan Medicine Culture Museum. - Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Wildlife Park 青藏高原野生动物园 4A scenic area · on the map
A zoo and wildlife rescue centre at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain on the western edge of Xining, opened in 2009 and best known for its snow leopards, most of them rescued from the wild; Xinhua reported in 2025 that it kept 12 of the roughly 20 snow leopards on public display in China. - Riyue Mountain 日月山 4A scenic area
A pass at 3,399 m on the road west from Xining to Qinghai Lake, dividing the Huangshui river basin and the farming zone to the east from the Qinghai Lake basin and the herding zone to the west. - Western Route Army Memorial Hall, Xining 中国工农红军西路军纪念馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A memorial museum in Xining on the Red Army's Western Route Army, the force that crossed the Yellow River westwards in October 1936 and was defeated by Ma family armies in Gansu's Hexi Corridor by March 1937, when more than 9,000 of its soldiers were captured. - Xiangqu Kayang Outdoor Resort 乡趣卡阳 4A scenic area · on the map
An outdoor resort in the high forest and pasture hills of Lanlongkou town, Huangzhong District; an official 2020 case study calls it the nearest primeval forest to Xining, with 81.1% tree cover, and gives its Tibetan name Kayang as 'pure place'. - Xinhualian Tongmeng Park 新华联童梦乐园 4A scenic area · on the map
A children's theme park and resort complex at Duoba in Huangzhong District, built around a Silk Road theme and open since 2019 on a site of about 24 hectares. - Xining Sports Park 西宁市体育公园 4A scenic area · on the map
A municipal sports-themed park on Haihu Avenue in Xining's Chengbei district, opened in 2016 as one of the main areas of the city's ring-road ecological park. - Zongjiagou Scenic Area 宗家沟 4A scenic area · on the map
A gorge scenic area in Riyue Tibetan township, Huangyuan County, with rock formations, natural caves and a hall to the Queen Mother of the West, a figure of Kunlun mythology. - Dongguan Mosque 东关清真大寺 National heritage site
A mosque in the Dongguan quarter on the east side of Xining, a focus of the city's Hui Muslim community, founded in the Hongwu era of the early Ming (1368–98). - Huangyuan City God Temple 湟源城隍庙 National heritage site · on the map
A palace-style temple built into the hillside in the heart of Dan'gar old town, begun in 1776, rebuilt in 1801 and repaired in 1911 and 1926. - Nanliang Hutai Site 虎台遗址 National heritage site
A rammed-earth mound of the Sixteen Kingdoms period, said to be what remains of a nine-tier reviewing platform built by Tufa Hutai, crown prince of Southern Liang, with room below for 100,000 troops according to the records.
Getting to Xining
Train, flight and driving times from the cities most visitors come from, with stations, fares and how many run a day; each opens the full comparison.
- Lanzhou 兰州 high-speed train 54 min, 67 a day, from ¥58
- Zhangye 张掖 high-speed train 1 h 41 min, 25 a day, from ¥92
- Chongqing 重庆 high-speed train 9 h 3 min, 3 a day, from ¥308; 3 nonstop flights a day, 2 h 5 min in the air
- Zhengzhou 郑州 2 nonstop flights a day, 2 h 10 min in the air
- Lhasa 拉萨 train 20 h 31 min, 5 a day, from ¥224; 3 nonstop flights a day, 2 h in the air
On the map
Open Xining on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Xining on the map